Now that lake fishing has finished for the year it’s time to shift to moving water. Yesterday’s sturgeon trip turned into a personal best for largest sturgeon caught in the lower river for my boat measuring in at 7.4ft long. But not just long .:::this fish was thick.
It took all three guys to rotate reeling in this bad boy. At the end of the day me landed 4 but went through a lot of bait and after the last fish bit so softly….we were left wondering how many sturgeon we might have missed!
Nevertheless…..it was another great day on the water and look forward to getting some more in before the end of 2025!
2025 has been another great year and what a way to end the Stillwater season.
Six of us headed up to one of my favourite lakes for some late fall fishing.
Again this lake don’t disappoint as not only were there a lot of fish caught but some personal bests.
Our boat landed over 80 fish over the weekend thanks to Derek’s red and black jig head leech which was dangled under the indicator. It always amazes me how there are times that it doesn’t matter what one uses to hook into the bows while on other trips they are only biting on the one fly. For our boat that fly was Derek’s red and black with red bead micro leech. Seemed like the fish wanted sparse and skinny flies not fluffed up and thicker leeches.
Fish didn’t seem to shy away from Brian’s uv micro leech as he landed a ten over as well as other fish in the 4-6 lb range.
Although most of us were dangling flies under the indicator, Istvan managed to land many casting and retrieving with a prince nymph. But to land the bigger ones he had to switch to the indicator as it appeared the larger trout were looking for dangling flies.
All in all the trip was a huge success, good buddies, decent weather (even though it snowed) and overall a great way to end the season. You can count on us coming back next year for a repeat!
This past weekend six of us City-it’s (city idiots) took off to the cariboo to repeat last years trip which two of us tapped into 150 big bows in three days. As we got closer to the date a realization that the extended warm weather was still rocking the cariboo so there was a chance we were perhaps a bit early for a Cariboo fall fishery. Yes technically it was still the last days of summer but the coolness of fall creeps up really fast up where we fish. In fact even with plus 20 temps in the day the evening and mornings were still dipping below zero. So in my estimation we were a week off of some prime fishing. But that’s how it goes….whenever u think u have figured out a lake or river or think u know when the best time of year a lake fishes ….it never fails….nature shows u who is boss and all your knowledge and predictions go right out the window. Let’s not feel too sorry for us. Six buddies on a four day trip means you’re already in the plus integers. In fact even though we didn’t catch 150 fish over three days we still all managed about 6/day on average and everyone caught a 4-6 lb horsefly strain bow.. In my books that’s a win. On top of that we got to visit with our cariboo friends which for me is also one of the reasons I like going to the cariboo.
One thing I have been thinking about is something one of my buddies said in the summer….that we don’t have many more years to fish. Well I just got back from the WHO concert and Roger waters is 82 and Peter frampton is 75. They rocked it for two hours. It was really amazing. And with that I left setting my first old guy goal which is to fish until I am at least 85. And more importantly to fish with buddies who enjoy not only fishing but enjoy the entire fishing trip experience. It is not how many fish or how big the fish are. It’s the fishing memories that are made along the way. It’s not a competition but a collective enjoyment of just watching anyone in your group catching and learning.
So just like teaching I guess it’s not the product but the process and for those that don’t get it that’s too bad.
Well took a break from the salmon and sturgeon and head up to the mountain to fish a higher level lake.
Fishing was slower but still managed to land about ten each.
Thought we had hooked into Walter as a fish hit the uv jig head leech and took off like a dart which took all the fly line immediately. However after landing the fish we discovered it got snagged in the tail. The fish was still a decent fish for this lake.
Well my sister and brother in law just got back from a Skeena river and trib rafting trip and reported they got some trout. But upon closer inspection looks like they actually landed a couple of nice pinks! You can see how they might have been mistaken for trout as one is so shiny and has some pink on it but one has the obvious spots and the other is very faint. Well done!
As a British Columbia and fisherman I can not express how lucky we are at this time of the year.
Generally for most fisher people August might be a time for casting dries on a river but in BC I am grateful for the multitude of options that are available. At the start of August I got to dry fly fish a classified river as well as fly fish Cariboo lakes for large rainbows.
Meanwhile just minutes from my house I was able to tap into some white sturgeon as well as some sockeye and pinks from the mighty Fraser River.
Also this month my fly fishing buddy took me Czech nymphing for some steelhead.
All of these opportunities taking place in the month of August and in BC.
It doesn’t get much better than this. Looking forward to next month targeting coho, chum and fall Stillwater rainbows! Stay tuned.
As usual, this epic fishing trip consists of some great buddies and big fish as well as having the chance to hangout at with our favourite Cariboo friends El and Marla.
This year we managed to fish 6 lake days and 2 river days. We hit four different lakes and introduced the guys to one new one this summer.
In the stillwater, boobies and leeches were the ticket. Water temp and weather was a little cooler with mornings as low as 4 degrees. Some hotter afternoons but nothing like we have had in the past.
On the river, there were no hoppers. The wetter summer seemed to have delayed the hoppers. As for fish, the fishing on the river seemed slower with the residents present but no sign of lake rainbows. When this happens my theory is that the salmon that come early into the system were not present or late so the trout from the lake haven’t followed into the system. Regardless some nice rainbows were caught on nymphs and hoppers. I snapped off two big bows on big brown hopper patterns that could also pass as a small mouse.
The Cariboo is such a great place to explore as many of the lakes in this region are filled with big fish. I found it interesting that usually the lakes we fish in this region do like the Tequilla Boobie but other patterns have worked effectively as well. On one day, my flies were not working but as soon as I put on the fly that everyone was using (Tequilla Boobie from SFOTF – big yellow foam eyes) that seemed to be the ticket. Overall, it is amazing that we can tap into so many fish and big fish during the month of July ini Stillwater.
Already looking forward to Fishmas 2026 but in the meantime I will be enjoying my sturgeon fishing, salmon and fall lake fishing over the next couple of months.
Stay tuned as we are heading back up to the Cariboo at the end of September to tap into some big bows.
Good memories and some excellent fishing as always.
Got to spend a couple of days up on Onion lake with my son and his friend and my buddy and his son.
We arrived in the heat of the day and immediately the indicators were going down. Not taking hard but what was hard was the boys were not paying attention.
Landed a few but snapped off six big ones fishing in three dr of water dangling maroon and black micro leeches.
Sopped for dinner and then came back for the night bite. Fish were feeding but didn’t have a ton of luck on the indicators. Again landed a few:
Next morning the boys were sleeping so buddy and I hit the hot spot and immediately the indicators were dipping. 1.75 hours later we were into about 20 fish and some nice ones.
Didn’t get to fish many hours on each day but happy we got the boys into fish.
This years annual derby took place at Knouff Lake Resort with 22 guys. Although weather turned out pretty bad for the Saturday, the rest of the weather was good enough to dry us up by the end of our stay.
This trip we experienced the smallest fish to date with the largest fish caught coming fro heffley lake at 2.12 lbs caught by Scott (who came second last year and first the year before).
In second and third place was Sean who landed two fish from Knouff weighing in at 1.95 and 1.85 lbs.
The number one fish was caught on a boobie but most were caught using chironomids.
Although fish were small it was great that everyone got into a lot of fish.
A big thank you to Knouff Lake Resort who always provides amazing hospitality.
Nice bow caught prior to the derby at a different lake.
Well the season officially started for me a couple of weekends back.
Hit a local lake and had a ton of success on chironomids and pheasant tails.
The next weekend headed up to the Cariboo an fished a favourite lake with some
Buddies: fishing wasn’t outstanding but still managed to get into some nice fish. Was using some tiny pheasant tails in size 18/20 and size 15/16 chironomids. Fish were big and hooks were small. Ended up bending 5 hooks and breaking one completely!
Taking a break this weekend and then heading to Kamloops the following weekend for my 26th annual fishing derby with 22 guys.
fishingbuddha 